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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Missing from American News, Context over clashes in Jerusalem

**this is a draft**As clashes have increasingly erupted in Jerusalem between Palestinian rock throwers and the IDF since September/Rosh Hashanah, with Prime Minister Netanyahu escalating the response, allowing stone throwers to be shot, and cutting off larger parts of Arab neighborhoods from Jerusalem, what is missing from American news about the current crisis is the context (an often occurrence since the media only reports on the latest incident in a longer, more complicated situation that is never explained in corporate news media) about what started the conflict, specifically Netanyahu's policies in Jerusalem. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe describes in this article how members of Netanyahu's government including the Ministers of Education and Agriculture as well as other politicians put Jerusalem into a Jewish only context, ignoring cultural and religious teachings of Christianity and Islam in favor of the Jewish dream for Jerusalem and it's holy sites.as he writes

The only explanation official Israel and its supporters could give for why Palestinians have risen up lately is that they were influenced by Islamic propaganda. That propaganda so easily incited the “impulsive and unpredictable” Palestinians in recent weeks, according to Israeli spin.

fearing future of Al Aqsa is

a realistic analysis of the ideology of some of the potent political forces today in Israel, who are represented in Benjamin Netanyahu’s current government.

Netanyahu repeatedly calls it Jerusalem the "undivided Jewish Capital" which is political code that has stopped any real chance of peace negotiations with Palestinians, as the "Palestine Papers" leak showed the behind the scenes history of failed negotiations over the last 20 years.The biggest failure in negotiations was not Palestinians refusing offers by peace-loving Israelis, but actually Israelis rejecting a Palestinian offer as I wrote in this blog post

The concession in May 2008 by Palestinian leaders to allow Israel to annex the settlements in East Jerusalem – including Gilo, a focus of controversy after Israel gave the go-ahead for 1,400 new homes – has never been made public.

All settlements built on territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war are illegal under international law, but the Jerusalem homes are routinely described, and perceived, by Israel as municipal "neighbourhoods". Israeli governments have consistently sought to annex the largest settlements as part of a peace deal – and came close to doing so at Camp David.

Erekat told Israeli leaders in 2008: "This is the first time in Palestinian-Israeli history in which such a suggestion is officially made." No such concession had been made at Camp David.

But the offer was rejected out of hand by Israel because it did not include a big settlement near the city Ma'ale Adumim as well as Har Homa and several others deeper in the West Bank, including Ariel. "We do not like this suggestion because it does not meet our demands," Israel's then foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told the Palestinians, "and probably it was not easy for you to think about it, but I really appreciate it".

Thanks to the Palestine Papers leak we can see Israel behind the scenes. The problem is when American Mainstream Media keeps these facts behind the scenes.

Stories of the Palestine Papers (NPR, January 24-28 2011) were later overshadowed by the Egyptian Revolution that ousted Mubarak (January 25-February 11 2011)